"Let there be light. And more light..." At this time of dark attitudes, when gloom and mental distress plague many lives, you may be ready for something fresh in your life that adds bounce to your step. Something that is free. Something that's always there. Some call it ‘soul', zest or raison d'être - a powerful sense of self, drawn from a wellspring inside our mind and body that makes each new day worth a cheerful ‘hello'.
This reservoir of positive energy can be called the soul. It's tiny and invisible to the human eye. The soul sparkles with spiritual power. The soul is naturally sweet and loving. The soul is peaceful. The soul holds memories. The soul is unique.

Personality

Personality is non-physical. The real you is spirit. Your body is not you. It belongs to you, but it is not who you are. A heart transplant recipient who receives a donated organ does not take on the donor's character. The amputee remains the same person they always were after the limb has gone. The memorial of the soul is found in the Indian ‘tilak' or the Buddhist ‘third eye', located in the centre of the forehead. Although invisible to the eye, a moment's meditation can re-open an awareness of this inner energy. This soul energy keeps us going - keeps us going for centuries.

From time to time, people comment that a newborn baby looks like ‘an old soul'. Reflecting on this comment, perhaps many of us have been on this planet, living as human beings, for a long time and know how the planet works, and what threatens it. Such people care. Deeply. Since each soul has its own history and identity, the study of the soul is a personal one.

Caring for ourselves

Part of caring for ourselves includes spending time each day to recharge our energy reserves with meditation. Meditation links us to a source of power beyond ourselves. Popular scientists and broadcasters may debunk any notion of this source, but plenty of people fuel each day with prayer, reflection and affirmations to empower positive change and hope. So the choice is ours: to practise or not.

Implications for life 

"To reflect on your own eternal identity and your original identity, to know yourself on those terms and to remain in such thoughts about yourself, is said to be thinking of yourself as a spiritual being. This is called the stage of soul consciousness."

From The Story of Immortality by Mohini Panjabi, BKIS Publications, 2008